Jeff Garlin revealed in a recent interview on The Daily Beast’s “Obsessed” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that he had undiagnosed bipolar disorder during the making of ABC’s “The Goldbergs,” which he notably exited from after an HR investigation into multiple claims of inappropriate conduct against him. The 1980s-set family sitcom, which ran for 10 seasons and 229 episodes from 2013 to 2023, starred Garlin opposite Wendi McLendon-Covey. Garlin exited in 2021.
“At the time, I was undiagnosed bipolar,” Garlin said on the podcast, noting he got his diagnosis after exiting the series. “I was miserable on the show, and I was miserable with my performance. And [Wendi] was always trying to tell me, ‘Hey, you’re really great on the show.’ I didn’t believe her. I just got to the point where I had to quit, and she was very resentful.”
Garlin added, “Being bipolar, I was either one of three things: dark, dark, dark, dark, didn’t talk and look at anyone; happy to the point of mania, never turning off my thing; or mean — really, really mean.”
McLendon-Covey reacted to Garlin’s comments on Instagram by disputing his comments: “Huh. Let’s just say I remember things very differently, as does the crew, the other actors, the writers, and our executives.”
When Garlin exited “The Goldbergs” in 2021, two sources close to the production confirmed to Variety that it was a mutual decision between the actor and the network. Shortly before, Garlin addressed allegations against him in an interview with Vanity Fair, acknowledging that an HR investigation into his on-set behavior had been ongoing for the past three years and dismissing a rumor that he had been fired from the series.
“We have a difference of opinion, Sony and myself. Okay. My opinion is, I have my process about how I’m funny, in terms of the scene and what I have to do. They feel that it makes for a quote ‘unsafe’ workspace,” Garlin said at the time. “Now, mind you, my silliness making an unsafe workspace — I don’t understand how that is… I am always a kind and thoughtful person. I make mistakes, sure. But my comedy is about easing people’s pain. Why would I ever want to cause pain in anybody for a laugh? That’s bullying. That’s just uncalled for.”
The allegations against Garlin ranged from unwanted hugging and touching people on set to telling jokes that made others uncomfortable. McLendon-Covey later said during an interview with Andy Cohen for SiriusXM that Garlin’s exit was “a long time coming.”
“That it finally happened, it was like, ‘Ok, finally someone is listening to us.’ But that was kind of hard though because we had lost George Segal in real life,” she added. “To have to go through another loss on a sitcom…you can’t keep asking your audience to mourn people. That’s not why they tune in… I’m exhausted by that topic and the PTSD of it all. I just feel like the less people know about that, the better. No one benefits from knowing anything.”
“The Goldbergs” was in the middle of filming its ninth season when Garlin was fired. As Variety exclusively reported at the time, producers decided to keep Garlin’s character on the show for the rest of the season by using off-camera dialogue and unused takes pulled from earlier episodes, as well as previously shot images of Garlin. The actor’s stand-in was also used in group scenes, but he was shot from the back. The final result was visually awkward and earned so many complaints on social media that McLendon-Covey even weighed in at the time.
“This season threw us for a loop because it’s hard to incorporate someone who doesn’t want to be there and wants to leave mid-scene, and we weren’t about to rewrite the second half of the season,” the comedian wrote on Twitter at the time. “We’re doing our best.”
When “The Goldbergs” kicked off its 10th and final season last fall, the show killed off Garlin’s character.
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